The Wright stuff

Brigadier John Wright with Nicholas Colquhoun-Denvers, outgoing HPA chairman

The Hurlingham Polo Association (HPA), rather unusually, now has a polo professional as its chairperson. Not a professional player, mind you, but a man who has spent 17 years running a polo club as his own business.

Brigadier John Wright’s experience at Tidworth, the UK’s biggest little club (it once had more playing members than Guards) will stand him in good stead as he leads the HPA through what he admits is ‘a difficult time for polo, given the present economic climate.’

Wright was elected for a four-year term as chairman beginning last November, succeeding Nicholas Colquhoun-Denvers. ColquhounDenvers and previous HPA chairs were businessmen with day jobs in fields other than polo. For Wright, however, polo was his sole business interest from which he earned his living as a hands-on, professional club manager – and a highly successful one at that.

Tidworth Polo Club in Wiltshire had been the home of army polo since 1907. ‘I took on Tidworth in 1995, as a sole trader, when the army decided it could no longer afford to keep the club going,’ Wright explained. ‘Back then, we had only 45 playing members, mainly military. Today, there are some 150, both military and civilian – the second-largest playing membership in the country. Seventeen years ago, we were lucky to get just a few hundred spectators for our main events; recently, we’ve had as many as 4,500.’

Wright, 72, has now ‘retired’ from his Tidworth business in order to concentrate on his new post as HPA chairman. He views the coming years of his chairmanship with a mixture of pragmatic pessimism and determined optimism.

‘Because of the recession, and with no end to the economic downturn in sight, polo is likely to see some rather difficult times,’ he says. ‘I don’t think we’ll see much growth, if any, in the sport this year. Some of the smaller clubs may struggle and, sadly, some low-goal and medium-goal players may have to drop out for financial reasons.

‘On the other hand, our high-goal season seems pretty robust, with team patrons from England and abroad bringing in top professional players to make our 22-goal season the most cosmopolitan in the world. It appears likely we’ll again have 16 teams for the Gold Cup this year.

‘Of course, most of our polo is played at lower handicap levels and at small clubs, but, like it or

not, it is the high-goal playing at the big clubs that provides us with the window through which the wider world sees our beautiful game. As long as this remains healthy, polo will have a vibrant and positive public image.’

Wright takes an optimistic view of the HPA’s place in international polo. ‘Our England national teams are improving all the time,’ he HPA events and managing them, our CEO, David Woodd, and his staff can concentrate more on the core activities of the polo association: rules, umpiring, fixtures, training and the like.’

Wright hopes that HPA’s finances this year will enable it to ring-fence spending on youth programmes, providing training and bursaries for young players in Pony Club Polo and Junior HPA – ‘the sport’s future generations’.

‘Most importantly of all,’ the association’s new chairman concludes, ‘we must do absolutely everything we can to help our smaller clubs weather the economic storm in the coming years. We can do this by doing all in our power to avoid making life more difficult for them.’ With Wright at the helm, there are certain to be bright skies ahead for the sport.

affirms. ‘In addition to our veterans, our younger players have never been more confident and capable. They are winning tests both here and abroad, such as this year’s Townsend Cup against the USA in California. England will meet the USA again in July, playing for the Westchester Cup on our Audi International day.

‘We’ve also just sent a team to play the FIP Snow Polo World Cup in China and have very hope they’ll return with big prize money.’

The HPA’s audited accounts for 2012 are due in February, and things look hopeful. ‘Despite the recession, it appears HPA’s finances managed to remain in the black last year – just,’ Wright says. ‘We’ve now taken on a commercial partner, Polofix, to maximise income from HPA assets. With Polofix handling sponsorship of